St. Cadoc’s Match Preview – Troon Football Club

It’s finally St. Cadoc’s v Troon at the third time of asking this calendar year, as take a break from the league to focus on the 4th round of the West of Scotland Cup at New Tinto Park this coming Saturday.

⚽️ St. Cadoc’s versus Troon F.C. ⚽️
Saturday 8th February 2025
West of Scotland Cup 4th Round
New Tinto Park, Govan
Kick-off 2pm

It’s been a real stop-start beginning to the second half of the season, thanks to the Scottish winter & then Storm Eowyn! Troon really was in the eye of the storm last weekend & the town took a bit of a battering, with Portland Park certainly not being immune. A fair bit of work to be carried out at the ground before we host Johnstone Burgh a week on Saturday unfortunately.

What is guaranteed to be a hectic second half of the season is now well underway, with five fixtures in February & six fixtures already in March. With five fixtures having been postponed or moved for Cup action and only one free weekend between now & the end of the season, we are sure for a busy start to 2025 with plenty of points at stake.

St. Cadoc’s had a hugely impressive first season in the WOSFL Premier Division last term, having been promoted alongside Champions Gartcairn & Benburb last summer. Their season didn’t start as planned this time out, which included a 2-1 defeat at home to Troon in July, but they have recovered in impressive style to sit in 3rd position after another win at the weekend; not to mention lifting the Strathclyde Demolition Cup at Broadwood on the 1st December.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s match…

Defender Jack Sherrie misses out today’s match, following his red card in the last round against Port Glasgow, and he is joined on the sidelines by recent signing Stephen Bronsky who is cup-tied having featured earlier in the competition for his previous club Gartcairn.

Logan Smith isn’t quite ready to return after a hamstring injury, while Bryan Wharton completed a move to Gartcairn last week. Other than that we have a full squad available, only missing long-term absentees Scott McLean & Ewan McLevy.

Really disappointing last weekend, we just never hit the heights we can. I could start blaming the pitch, injuries or whatever, but in reality we simply weren’t good enough to win the game & Pollok took advantage. I said last week we needed to take our chances when presented with them & we simply didn’t do that after a really strong opening 20 minutes. They take their first proper chance & you could instantly feel the relief emanating around the ground, they never really looked back after that.

But, we put that to the back of our minds and refocus on this weekend’s match, and a totally different proposition in Martin Fellowes’ side. We enjoyed a good victory up there in July, but we’ve all seen their resurgence since then & know exactly how good a side they are, so we need to be fully ready for Saturday. They have a match on Wednesday night, so we will have a few more days rest & preparation than they will, but then again if they win against Shotts they’ll be carrying confidence & momentum into the game, so it’s swings & roundabouts.

As always – it’s all about us, and what we do in the match. That will dictate the outcome, and that’s what we need to focus on.

Jimmy Kirkwood (Manager)

Full Name	St. Cadoc’s Football Club
Nickname(s)	St. Cads
Founded	1987 (2020 as a senior team)
Ground	New Tinto Park, Govan
Capacity	1,000
Club President	Brendan Boyle
Manager	Martin Fellowes
Captain	BJ Coll
2023-24	WOSFL Premier Division, 3rd from 16

⚽️️ NEIL McLAUGHLIN ⚽️

A powerful winger, who is most often found coming off the left flank, 25 year old Neil really caught the eye last season thanks to his goal-scoring, with 30 league goals to his name in 2023-24.

One of many players who followed Martin Fellowes from East Kilbride last summer, he began his career in the Partick Thistle Weir Youth Academy before a spell with Motherwell, Stirling & Caledonian Braves.

⚽️️ CIARAN DIVER ⚽️

24 year old Ciaran made an unbelievable impact at Beith last season after signing from Renfrew, scoring a whopping 43 goals in 44 matches to finish as the league top scorer as his side won the league.

Began his career at Celtic, with loan spells at Edinburgh City & Stranraer, he joined Benburb & eventually Renfrew, scoring plenty of goals on the way. Ciaran is the son of former Ayr & Pollok striker Danny.

St. Cadoc’s

WON	WON	WON	DREW	WON
2-0	1-0	6-1	1-1	3-1
Shotts Bon Accord (H)	Gartcairn (H)	Darvel (H)	Benburb (H)	Cumnock (H)
Weds 5th February	Sat 1st February	Sat 18th January	Sat 21st December	Sat 14th December
WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier

Troon F.C.

LOST	LOST	WON	WON	WON
1-0	1-1 (3-5 on pens)	0-1	1-1 (5-4 on pens)	1-3
Pollok (A)	Armadale Thistle (H)	Largs Thistle (A)	Lochee Utd (H)	Port Glasgow (A)
Sat 1st February	Sat 18th January	Sat 21st December	Sat 14th December	Sat 7th December
WOSFL Premier	Scottish Junior Cup R5	WOSFL Premier	Scottish Junior Cup R4	WOSFL Cup R3

If you can’t make it along to the game , you can keep up to date with all the latest info via the club’s social media channels:

Live updates from the BRAND NEW official Troon F.C. Twitter feed (I’m not calling it X yet)

Team news pre-match
Goal alerts
News flashes
Real time alerts

Make sure you follow our NEW feed!

Match news via the official Troon F.C. Facebook page

Team news pre-match
Half-time score & update
Full time results

All news on the club FIRST via the official Troon F.C. WhatsApp Supporter’s Group chat

Vote for your Man of the Match
Info on functions & events
Book your seat on away buses
Discuss the match with fellow Troon fans!

It was 2 wins out of 2 for Premier Division new boys St. Cadoc’s against the Seasiders, in an impressive maiden season where they finished 3rd.

AWAY MATCH

Wednesday 27th March 2024

Match Centre

ST. CADOC’S	LOST	New Tinto Park
TROON FOOTBALL CLUB	1-0	WOSFL Premier

The first encounter of 2023-24 was under the lights at Tinto for a midweek fixture which was closely contested. After a enthralling first half, where Troon felt a bit frustrated to not have got their noses in front, the visiting support were enraged by a penalty decision from referee Ross Birrell when he pointed to the post for a handball when the ball was fired off the defenders arm from point blank range. Neil McLaughlin stepped up to fire home from 12 yards, which ultimately was the difference between the sides.

HOME MATCH

Saturday 11th May 2024

Match Centre

TROON FOOTBALL CLUB	LOST	Portland Park
ST. CADOC’S	0-5	WOSFL Premier

The final match of the season was a dead rubber for both sides, as both sets of supporters saw out the season in the Ayrshire sunshine.

Troon had the better of the early exchanges, but after Daniel McManus opened the scoring in the 23rd minute there was only going to be one winner as the Glasgow side showed their class against their tired hosts. Another tremendous goal from McManus, goals from Bob McHugh, a Jack Sherrie own goal and a fifth from Neil McLaughlin sealed a comfortable win for the Cads.

(before this week’s matches)

	REFEREE:
	Ross Birrell
Assistant Referee 1:		Assistant Referee 2:
Joshua Horan		Roark McShane

Referee Observer:

To Be Appointed

For travelling supporters, follow the Google Map below for directions to New Tinto Park.

🚌 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗕𝗨𝗦 🚌

Billy Inglis is doing a head count to check viability for a supporter’s bus for this weekend. Please contact Billy on: 07957 539491 if you’d like to reserve a seat.

🚍 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗬 𝗕𝗨𝗦 🚏

To plan your journey from Troon to Govan, visit the “Journey Planner” section of Stagecoach’s website.

🔗 STAGECOACH.com

🚝 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡 🚉

For train times from Troon to Govan, or to book tickets, visit Scotrail’s website.

🔗 SCOTRAIL.co.uk

Tickets are available at the cash turnstiles at New Tinto Park:

Adult:	£9
Concession:	£5

You can find out all about the match itself by visiting the match centre both before and after the game, with the team line-ups, scorers & bookings on the specific match page for the fixture.

To visit the match centre, CLICK HERE.